Training Day
by Little Cinchan
Summary: Black Canary is not always available for training. Sometimes she's got to go and save the world. When the teacher is gone, the kids take turns teaching each other. Starting with Robin.


YJ: Training Time

Lesson 1: Agility

It was training time in Mount Justice, the teenage heroes filed into the training room from the various hallways that led there. As they entered they immediately noticed that there was something different about the training area. The normally clear floor is now filled various obstacles it looks more like a gymnastic training room than anything. In the middle of the room the Boy Wonder stood gracefully on a thin bar swinging back and forth from the ceiling. As the tiny teen saw the others have all gathered the somersaulted through the air landing lightly on the ground in front of them.

"Welcome to your training session guys brought to you by Robin." The boy giggled.

"Who died and made you teacher?" Kid Flash said zooming up next to Robin to put the boy in a headlock but Robin seemed to have seen it coming and got out of the way so Kid Flash just ruffled his hair instead.

"No one died. Black Canary had some League business to take care of so she put me in charge of today's training." Robin said swatting away KF's hand away and smoothing out his hair. "She wanted us to practice our agility and dodging today. Kind of my specialty."

"When would I ever need to dodge something?" Superboy asked bluntly.

"You don't always want to be getting hit." Robin said looking pointedly at Superboy. "Most things may not hurt you, but they can still knock you around make you lose ground. Dodging is a very important part of keeping the fight on your own terms." Superboy said nothing, but he did not make any moves to leave. The others looked at each other and shrugged seeing nothing wrong to learn from the Batman protégé. Robin smiled brightly. "Okay. The rules are simple, no attacking. This is about endurance and agility. These puppies up there will be shooting paintball pellets at all of us." Robin said gesturing at floating paintball turrets, there was one for each of them. "The rate of fire has been programmed to increase steadily. If you get hit you are out. Last man, or woman" Robin said nodding at the ladies, "standing wins. To sweeten the deal the winner has control of the remote for on whole week!" All of the teens' eyes brightened at this, the coveted remote control, to watch whatever they want whenever they want, what a captivating prize.

"This will be a piece of cake." Kid Flash laughed. "Get ready for a week of the Comedy Network and Speed Racer guys."

"You may be fast, but speed alone will not bring you victory." Aqualad smirked thinking of the week of peace and quiet when he could turn off the offensive television whenever he pleased. The girls giggled among themselves drawing the attention from the boys.

"You are going to wish you never came up with this idea Robin." Artemis said with a smirk.

"We are going to get to watch all those movies you boys vote down at movie night!" Miss Martian squealed.

"Enough talk guys," Robin announced doing a back flip on to a balance beam, he was psyched to see everyone so excited about the contest. In his best announcer voice Robin signalled to them as he pushed the button that brought the paintball turrets to life, "Let the game begin!"

It was fairly easy at first ball of paint flew towards them at a good pace, everyone managed to dodge fairly well. The girls caught on quick that all the obstacles were good cover. Kid Flash however rather than dodging the shots prided himself at out running the shots running circles around the entire obstacle course. Eventually the shots got faster and faster, the misses got closer and closer. Superboy was the first one out, he was not agile enough to get out f the way as shots got closer and more frequent. One shot came towards him, he dodged only to run straight into another shot painting his chest neon yellow. The shock of getting shot made the boy get hit a few more times painting his usual black shirt multi-coloured. Miss Martian flew towards Superboy to see if he is okay only to get pelted with paint herself. Robin's giggle drew their attention to him.

"You guys need to focus. If you can't take care of yourself you can't take care of others." Robin said dodging paintballs as he spoke. "Focus is the key to not getting hit."

The two moved off the field and sat down on the bleachers to watch the others. Superboy couldn't help but notice how freely Robin moved through the air, jumping and flipping between obstacles and propelling himself off bars. It was like the boy had eyes on the back of his head no matter what angle the paintballs were coming at him the little boy managed to dodge it. Artemis was the next one out, she was too focused on dodging the paintballs she tripped over a low bar, she was able to save herself from falling on her face but not able to dodge the paintballs coming for her painting her pink and blue.

"You have to be aware of your surroundings." Robin said still dodging with the same grace as he did before. "Your surroundings can be your best allies or worst enemies." To prove his point the boy dodged behind a balance beam for cover. With Artemis out of the race it was only Robin, Aqualad and Kid Flash left.

"You don't have to be aware of anything when you can out run everything!" Kid Flash laughed zooming faster around the playfield. "I can even do this backwards so I can keep an eye on these pesky little paintballs." To prove his point KF turned around and being running backwards. The floor has become quite slick with the paint from the paintballs that splattered on the ground, not paying attention to his footing when he stepped into a particularly wet puddle of paint. Losing his footing Kid Flash slipped and fell covering himself with multi-coloured paint. KF didn't recover in time to dodge the green and red paintballs flying at him. Robin's giggles could be heard echoing in the room, Miss Martin tried to cover her own giggles behind her hand, Artemis was holding her stomach she was laughing so hard, even Superboy cracked a smile.

"Thanks a lot guys." Kid Flash huffed indignantly walking off the play field. "If the floor hadn't been wet I would win this hands down."

"Well you can't always expect to be fighting in perfect condition." Robin giggles continuing to flip through the air. They noticed the boy didn't have a speck of paint on him, even on his shoes. Watching closely Robin seemed to know where all the dry patches are and only ever stepped on those. Robin was not the only one. Aqualad was fairing pretty well himself, he was nowhere as graceful or flashy as Robin, but whatever he was doing was allowing him to dodge all the paintballs. After about an hour the paintball turrets stopped humming and firing having run out ammunition. In the paint covered training room the two moving figures came to a stop and began walking towards each other.

"And the final lesson is stamina." Robin said with a bright smile as he watched the Atlantean huff a little bit trying to catch his breath. Robin's cheeks were a little pink from the workout but the younger boy's breathing was still as even as if he hadn't just been running around dodging paintballs for the last hour. Robin smirked and looked up at the older boy and extended his hand. "Looks like we have a winner. I didn't think you would figure out the patterned movements of the turrets, I guess I didn't put as many variables in as I should have."

"No, you are the clear winner, you don't have a drop of paint on you. My boots are covered in paint." Aqualad said humbly.

"Na, you did great." Robin's smirk grew to a smile as the others came to join them. "It isn't fair for me to be in this game. First of all I programmed the drones. Even with random variable insertion I had a clear advantage, I knew the equations. All I had to do was solve it in my head and I could calculate the most likely destination based on the programming and trajectory of the other shots." The older teens just gaped at the thirteen-year-old unable to fathom how they would do that on paper much less in his head.

"Aqualad is the winner of this contest." Batman's voice snapped the teens out of their stupor Robin had put them in. "Robin that was sloppy. You had three near misses near the end." Robin bowed his head in shame at Batman's words. "Had those been batarangs you would have been hit. When we get back to the cave you will do an extra hour of practice."

"Yes sir." Robin replied obediently.

"Don't you think you are being a bit harsh?" Superboy said not fearing Batman nearly enough to hold back the words that everyone else was thinking. Batman glared down at the boy and the Superboy glared back at Batman unyieldingly. The staring contest between the two men made Robin giggle and place himself between the two men. Robin tugged at Superboy's big wrists to make the older boy look at him.

"Thank you for defending me, but it is precisely this strict training that has made me able to do what I can do today." Robin said with a warm smile at his team. If Batman blushed he definitely would have at the boy's words, but Batman didn't blush, he just turned and began walking out of the training room pausing at the door he looked to Robin for the boy to follow. Robin smiled at his friends again and followed after his mentor. "Besides, I was being sloppy." Robin said as he left the room, "I've been dodging Batman's batarangs since I was nine I shouldn't have any close calls with mechanically shot paintballs."

The teens stared after their youngest member and his mentor speechlessly even long after they disappeared from the door way. Wally vaguely wondered if he should be calling child protective services. Artemis wondered what kind of parents in their right mind let their kid hang out with Batman. Aqualad is in awe by the boy's training as a warrior. Miss Martian can only wonder if all human children are playing dodge with sharp objects when they were nine. Superboy was just annoyed that Robin would defend Batman.

The next week the silence in Mount Justice was only interrupted by Kid Flash's pleas, protests, and bribes trying to get Aqualad to relinquish the remote control and turn on the TV.


End file.
